


Cuddle party!

by Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Awkward JT, Cuddling, Fine I put it on the list of ships just in case, Gen, Gil and Edrisa both have cats and you can't convince me otherwise, Little bit of Malcolm/Edrisa if you squint, Okay maybe you don't have to squint that hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29232234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness/pseuds/Masterpiece_of_turkey_cleverness
Summary: Edrisa has a birthday party, and Gil convinces the entire team to go--before he realizes that it's also a cuddle party.  But everything turns out just fine!
Relationships: JT Tarmel/Tally Tarmel, Malcolm Bright/Edrisa Tanaka
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	Cuddle party!

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a prompt by PussNHikingBoots on the Prodigal Son Trash Discord Server. The prompt was "An actual cuddle party.  
> Everyone's invited." I didn't manage to get /everyone/ from the show in there (sorry, Murder Daddy lovers...he /would/ be awesome to cuddle with), but I did get the whole team from the precinct. 
> 
> I based my description of Edrisa's apartment on a discussion Cuddlyclothes and I had on the server as well :).

Gil stepped into his small townhouse, and sighed. There were times--especially when neither of his two cats came to greet him when he walked in--that the loneliness that had been there ever since Jackie died hit him like a sledgehammer. Today was one of those days, although Smudge finally wandered over to see who it was after he’d tossed his keys in the bowl next to the door. 

It was one of several reasons why he often stayed so late at the precinct. 

“Hey, Smudge,” he said, bending down to scratch the cat behind her ears as she wound around his ankles. “Where’s Soot?”

Smudge, of course, had no answers for him, and lost interest once his ankles were thoroughly marked with her scent. He shrugged off his blazer and hung it up, only to feel the buzzing of a text alert. Was there a new body? It was late, but murderers didn’t seem to sleep much. Gil pulled the phone out, frowning when he didn’t recognize the number immediately. 

_I thought you, at least, would come._

Below was a picture of what he sincerely hoped was a fake man’s torso with a y-incision in it. 

Gil’s brows scrunched together as he tried to figure out who had sent him the text and image. Bright was his first guess, but the kid’s number would show up on Caller ID. 

Then he got it. 

Edrisa. He’d never actually taken the time to enter her name in his phone. He texted back. _What do you mean?_

 _My party. No one came,_ she replied almost immediately. 

Gil sighed, and walked over to slump down in his favorite recliner, only to find he had to remove an obstinate Soot first (no easy feat). _What party?_

_My birthday party. Didn’t you get the invitation?_

Shit. He racked his brain. Had he forgotten about it? He didn’t think so, as he was pretty sure he would have remembered being invited. Maybe it was the loneliness he felt, but instead of texting back, he hit the ‘call’ button. 

“Hello?” It was definitely Edrisa’s voice, so that was at least good, but it sounded just as woebegotten as he’d felt just a few minutes earlier. 

“Hi, Edrisa, it’s Gil. I’m sorry I didn’t come; I never got an invitation.”

“Yes you did! It’s right here in my e-mail box...look, it’s addressed to all of you and...ohhhhh no.”

“What?”

“It’s still in the drafts folder,” she groaned. “No _wonder_ nobody came. Oh well. Probably no one would have come anyway, even if I had sent it.” 

“That’s not true,” Gil told her. “ _I_ would have come. Look, why don’t you move it to Saturday? You could just freeze the cake for a few days. At least, I hope that’s a cake and not an actual body on your table.”

“It’s a cake,” Edrisa confirmed, laughing. “But what if everyone already has plans?” 

“They won’t, at least, not all of them will,” and Gil suddenly knew he was going to see to that, even if it meant twisting a few arms. “I’ll come--unless we have a body drop. I promise.” 

“Okay!” She sounded like her usual, more chipper self, and Gil smiled. “I’ll edit the e-mail and send it for real this time. Thanks, boss!”

“You’re welcome.” Before Gil could say goodbye, she had hung up, and the e-mail appeared in his box a few minutes later. 

Gil opened the team chat on his phone (it didn’t include Edrisa), and texted them all, _Attendance at Edrisa’s party is mandatory. --The boss_

He almost immediately received a text from Malcolm, sent to the group: _New case?_ That kid was going to kill himself from overwork one day. 

_No, no case. Birthday party,_ he texted back. 

While he was replying to Malcolm, he received a private text from JT. _Uhhh...boss? Did you read the invite? ‘Cause I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that._

What? Gil went back and read the original e-mail. Oh, shit. It wasn’t _just_ a birthday party. It was a birthday and _cuddle_ party. They were all supposed to come in pajamas, and there would be mandatory cuddling.

 _Bring Tally to cuddle with,_ he advised JT. After all, if _he_ had to suffer through a cuddle party, they were all going to.

.oOOo.

Gil was not overly surprised by Edrisa’s apartment--it was crammed floor to ceiling with bookshelves, home to at least two friendly cats who looked like they were identical, and also full of medical posters and strange items, such as a carved wooden face he came across while looking at her family photos. The face looked a little demonic, to be honest, but he didn’t ask about it, so he didn’t learn its story. Another shelf held a pile of plushies shaped like various bacteria, viruses, parasites, and human organs. All in all, it was better than Bright’s collection of weapons, but only slightly. 

Despite the ambiance, most of the party was completely normal--there was some light drinking, chatting, gift-opening, and then most of them had cake (Tarmell refused to touch it because it was the color of blood inside). Gil was pleased to note that Edrisa seemed happier than he’d ever seen her, and made a mental note to try to include her in more team activities. He could tell that Powell was making a special effort to be friendly to her, while Bright was charming, as always. Finally, Tally more than made up for JT’s awkwardness with her pregnancy stories. Gil was glad the two of them had managed to find a babysitter for the evening. 

Gil had positioned himself at the sink and was rinsing dishes, forks, and glasses before placing them in the dishwasher when he heard Edrisa exclaim, “Cuddle time!” He’d hoped, despite the fact that everyone had arrived in pajamas (many of them looked suspiciously unused) that Edrisa wasn’t going to insist on it. He should have known better. 

“Okay, everyone, first, the rules. No sexual touching,” Edrisa began. Gil knew that HR wouldn’t be comfortable with any activity that required that rule. But what HR didn’t know couldn’t hurt them, right? 

“You need to ask in order to touch, and you can ask someone to ‘please stop’ at any time and they have to. But you should really try it. Most of us are a little starved for human touch; in our culture, touching has a lot of sexual connotations. That means we don’t do it a lot outside of relationships, but being touched by someone else releases oxytocin and dopamine, which are good for you.” 

“Let’s go to the living room,” Edrisa added, and Gil followed the others out of the dining room/kitchen combo. The medical examiner took a few minutes to toss the pillows from the couches onto the floor. “We’ll start with something easy, that almost everyone likes--a back rub. Tally, could I use you to demonstrate?”

“A back rub? Hell, yes.” Tally set her drink aside and turned her back to Edrisa, who reached up and began to massage her shoulders and back. “Oh god, that feels good,” Tally groaned. 

“Do you use a nursing pillow?” Edrisa asked. “You really should; it helps support your back and shoulders.” 

“No, JT said we didn’t need one,” Tally replied. The man in question looked vaguely guilty, Gil noticed.

“Well, they can help the baby latch on, support your back, and they’re even supposed to help with pregnancy if you use them before the baby arrives. Though, I guess it’s a little too late for that,” Edrisa said, letting out a rueful chuckle. 

JT made eye contact with Gil, and he knew that that was the look of a man who was going to be going on an expensive shopping trip soon, and God help him if what he came back with wasn’t exactly what his wife had requested. Gil gave him what he hoped was a sympathetic look. 

“Okay, the rest of you try now,” Edrisa instructed. She continued her massage of Tally’s back, and Powell and Bright turned toward each other, so…

Gil felt the objection coming, although he waited for JT to realize that they were the only ones without partners. “Oh, hell no. I am NOT rubbing the boss’ back,” he complained. “Give Tally back.”

“Oh, no, you and Tally can’t be partners, I should have mentioned that earlier,” Edrisa said brightly. “Couples have to expand their horizons and learn to touch other people outside of the relationship.” She sounded as if she was reading from a script; for all Gil knew, she had memorized one. 

“Dani. Get over here,” JT demanded. 

“Oh, so _I_ have to rub the boss’ back? Because I’m a woman?” Dani raised an eyebrow at JT while Malcolm ran his hands over her back. 

“I was thinking you could rub mine,” JT said, but the Look Dani gave him quelled his protest almost instantaneously. 

JT glanced back toward Gil, face falling. “It won’t be so bad,” Gil told him. “Here, I’ll do you, turn around. Uh. If you’re okay with that.” He received a grunt in return, which he took for grudging acceptance.

“Oh, we’ll switch who’s rubbing who’s back in just a minute,” Edrisa told them all. 

Gil, who had already put his hands on JT’s broad shoulders, felt JT stifle a groan in response. “You owe me one, boss,” he growled quietly enough so that only Gil could hear him. 

“Fine,” Gil muttered back. JT hadn’t lost any of his stiffness by the time Edrisa instructed them to turn around and rub the other’s back. JT’s hands were large and a little clumsy, but Gil had to admit, Edrisa had a point--he hadn’t been touched by anyone like this in a very long time, and it felt good. 

Maybe he should try to find the time to date again, like his family was always telling him. 

Luckily for JT, the backrubs didn’t last very long. “So, next,” Edrisa started, stepping away from Tally, “We’re going to do hugs. But, we’re going to hug someone and then hold the hug for five minutes.” She glanced around, made eye contact with JT, looked a little frightened, and turned to Gil instead. “May I hug you, boss?”

“Sure.” Gil wasn’t going to say no to the birthday girl, even if she did smell a little like formaldehyde when he wrapped his arms around her. He prayed that HR would never find out about this as the seconds slowly turned into minutes. It was nice to have his arms around a woman again, even if Jackie had been taller than Edrisa was. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dani smirk at JT and turn to ask Tally about a hug, leaving the world’s most awkward pairing--Tarmell and Bright--to hug it out. Malcolm, used to doing weird things in therapy, went ahead and hugged JT like he was family, with his head leaning on Tarmell’s shoulder, but JT was ramrod-straight and only touching Malcolm’s back with his fingertips. Gil tried not to snicker, or give in to the impulse to make fun of them--he knew that if he did, JT would never forgive him...and would never agree to try something like this again.

Edrisa felt good against him, and he hugged her a little tighter. She didn’t seem to mind, although he couldn’t see her face--it was turned so one side was pressed up against his chest. He let her sway them a little from side to side, and felt a pang of loss when the timer beeped on her phone, signalling that five minutes was up. “Thanks,” she told him, craning her neck to look up at him as she stepped away. 

“You’re very welcome,” he told her. 

“Okay, just one more,” she said to the room at large. Tarmell stepped away from Bright as if he had a COVID variant, and, after a quick glance around, put himself directly in front of Powell, who rolled her eyes at him. “For this one, we’re going to lay down, and cuddle for fifteen minutes. Malcolm, would you be my partner?” Edrisa asked hopefully, in a tone that absolutely no one in the room, Gil was fairly certain, actually thought was innocent. 

“Sure,” Bright told her with a smile. They got down on the floor, and soon Malcolm was a big spoon and she was a little one. 

Gil looked around, found Tarmell and Powell arguing over who got to be the big spoon, and then looked at Tally. Before he could say anything, she smiled at him. “Fair warning, I’m so exhausted I might fall asleep,” she said, lowering herself to the floor and pulling a pillow close to rest her head on. 

“I won’t hold it against you if you do,” he joked. He was still spry enough that he made it to the floor with no creaks or groans, then pressed up behind Tally and put an arm over her middle. She laid her arm on top of his.

Rather than watch JT watch him cuddling his wife, Gil looked over at Edrisa and Malcolm. They were chattering away, and he felt his heart warm--Bright needed a good woman in his life, and the two of them would certainly have plenty to talk about, if nothing else. 

“Thank you for bringing JT,” he told Tally quietly. 

“It wasn’t as hard as you might think,” she murmured back, conspiratorially. “He loves you to pieces. Plus, he loves complaining, and this is going to give him plenty of reasons to do that.”

Gil snorted a laugh. “I have no doubt.” He was silent afterwards, and, as promised, Tally quickly fell asleep in his arms. He couldn’t fault her for doing so, what with being a new mother and all. 

Once the cuddling session was over--signaled by another quiet alarm on Edrisa’s phone--the party started to break up. Tarmell lifted up Tally and carried her out to his car, still asleep, with Malcolm opening doors for them along the way. Dani told Edrisa good night, and Gil was happy to hear them mention plans for a future shopping date. 

“Good night.” Gil gave Edrisa a hug when it was his turn, and she hugged him back hard. 

“Thank you for coming,” she said, her tone earnest. She wasn’t stupid, and Gil figured that she knew he’d had a hand in making sure the entire team was there. 

“I’m glad I did,” he said, somewhat surprised to realize he was being completely honest. “Happy birthday, Edrisa.” 

“Thank you.” 

Gil collected his blazer and passed Malcolm on his way out. He briefly wondered if the kid had set it up so he’d end up alone with Edrisa at the end of the night. Probably not; Bright could be a legitimate genius one minute, and an utter moron the next. Mentally wishing the two of them well, whatever happened, Gil got back in what he thought of as his second ‘sad car,’ feeling anything but, and drove home.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @Masterpieceofturkeycleverness!


End file.
